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Still-life - Shower Hose, 1919

Margaret WatkinsCanadian, 1884
- 1969
gelatin silver print21.2 x 15.9 cmPurchased 1984 with the assistance of a grant from the Government of Canada under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act
National Gallery of Canada (no. 20628)

shower hose coiled around shower rodIn addition to making still life studies of objects in the kitchen, Watkins also photographed ordinary household items in the bathroom. In this image, an ungainly shower hose loops gracefully around a wooden towel rack in a series of concentric circles that decrease gradually from left to right. The curves contrast with the repeating parallel lines created by the wainscoting on the wall in the background. Bathroom implements also featured in the work of other modernist artists, including Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal of 1917 and Edward Weston’s image of the base of a toilet, a photograph titled Excusado from 1925.